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Season 2, Ep 14 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-09-01 14:30:01
Edited:
2023-07-01 15:40:42
Imported:
Tags:
S2

Content

fun game: take a drink every time i say "bad" in this one. :)

(uhhh for legal reasons that is a joke please drink responsibly) 😌

Files

Buffy Season 2, Ep 14 - Innocence

Vidyard video

Comments

Jessica Roth

Okay, a confession: Jenny isn't the only one who's been keeping a secret. You see, I have been bending over backwards to be nice to Angel. And I do think that Angel's quest to redeem his previous crimes is a noble effort, and that he cares for Buffy and that he's been helpful to the group (not only fighting, but helping with the mystery in SAR and "Lie to Me"). And he's a good sounding board for Buffy. And his comedy potential is indisputable. (WHY didn't he wear the pointy hat??? *cries* ) But…my actual feelings for Angel are VERY different, on a visceral level. Going full rant would risk letting a spoiler out, so I'll control myself, but let's just say I'm not inclined to cut him much slack after this.

Jessica Roth

My feelings about Angel do not diminish my enjoyment of "Bad Angel" or my admiration for the work David does playing him. For most of this series IMO, David has been one of the weaker actors. Certainly my disgust at Angel's Incredibly Stupid Plan to Have Spike Bite Xander (in "School Hard") was not merely about the stupidity of the plan or the disrespect it shows Xander (and by extension, the group) or the utter LAMENESS of Angel pretending that being "evil" = "faking weakness and sneaking snacks behind Buffy's back". It was also because (IMO) David generated absolutely no true sense of menace there. Completely different from what we get now. Thankfully.

Jessica Roth

And before I discuss the episode proper, let's tip a hat to Joss Whedon. Not only does he completely flip the balance of power (turning Buffy's, er, closest ally into her deepest enemy), not only does she have to stop the immortal planet-killing demon, but Joss takes all SIX romantic pairs (the five operational ones and the unrealized Willow/Xander) and hammers them all, to varying degrees. From "best" to worst: • Willow/Oz: Oz expresses feelings, but also makes it clear why he's reluctant to go further. I mean, Willow could just get over Xander, but she's had her whole life to do that. • Xander/Cordelia: They're outed, which is probably going to be difficult for Cordelia (especially socially) and has damaged Xander's relationship with Willow, which even if it's not romantic, is something he relies on. • Willow/Xander: Willow gets her heart broken, in the worst way possible. It would be bad enough if Xander had just kept dating Ampata (if she wasn't a killer) or whatever, but for him to be sneaking around with the person Willow has so much unresolved history with? And for her to catch him at it, like that? Ugh. • Spike/Drusilla: Don't get me wrong, Angel has a certain affection for Spike (all sires do for their childer, I'd assume) but he's naturally dominant, and there's only room for one Big Daddy in vamp-land. And he's already mocked Spike as inadequate…and Drusilla didn't exactly rush to disagree. And Spike's in a wheelchair, and can't do a thing about it. Hard cheese, Matchhead. • Rupe and Jenny/Jana/Calzone/whomever: He finds out she's been lying to him since the day they met and now has to wonder if her feelings were a lie, too. She's kicked out of the group and rather firmly at that. Not to mention she was humiliated in front of all her students. (Including Dan, I noticed. Gee, first Buffy ruins his police seminar and now computer class. If she keeps this up, he'll be reduced to selling pencils on the street corner. Sheesh.) • Buffy/Angel: Obviously. Nice work for one episode, Whedon. You bastard.

Jessica Roth

(Oh, goodie! Patreon eats another post! Sigh…) No notifications for Cal because no smartphones until 2007. (I had a joke about the Elder Woman's email, but it wasn't so great. Thanks, Patreon! Grrr…) Cut line: JUDGE: I fought an army. They hacked me to pieces. For 600 years I lay buried, my living head in a box. I've learned to be patient. I've seen reactors be confused about whether Buffy actually killed the Judge; perhaps they should have kept this line, to restate the problem (the Judge's backstory was in last ep) for the new episode? How great is David here? He even does good acting WITH HIS BACK TURNED. A contemporary review said they knew Angel had lost his soul before he turned around…because he was standing straight up for once. 100 years of guilt almost literally off his shoulders. (Okay, part of that hunching was because David is so much taller than Sarah. But it works for the character, too.) Note that Angel is already in vampire face when he turns around and he's already vamped out when he attacks Willow at the school. And he fights Buffy in human face. Morphing shots cost $$$, you know. Joss still thinks like a producer ;) Speaking of faces, your reaction to Angel biting the woman was PERFECT. Have you considered screen-shotting it? Lol.

Jessica Roth

If Buffy wants to sneak up to her room, maybe she should take off those clunky heels, first? Those things make a serious racket. I grant you, by the end of this day, Buffy will be crying herself to sleep and Joyce will never notice (how late IS that gallery open?) but it just seems wiser. I've been saying that Whedon hasn't served the Xander/Willow side of the potential triangle (double triangle, technically, since it complicates things for both Willow/Oz and Xander/Cordelia) enough, but at least he corrects it in this episode. Even before the climactic "Willow finds out" bit, we see the two of them being in sync here, wanting to rush into action while Giles/Cordy/Cal demur. After all, what makes Xander a hero? Not that he's "fearless" per se (although some of his "cowardice" jokes are just that, since he REALLY didn't like being thought a coward in "Halloween") but that he's unswerving. If he thinks that something should be done, he'll do it, and "you might die" seems like a stupid argument to him. Xander's process is figure out what needs to be done (go rescue Buffy and Angel) and figure out the details later. And while Willow isn't so impulsive, she ultimately aligns with him. (I do love this bit: WILLOW: Buffy! XANDER: We were just going to rescue you. WILLOW: Well, SOME of us were. (Scornful look at Giles) GILES: Well, I-I would have. Yes, I think he would. Rupe tends to dither, but he can be persuaded. Aww.) Now let's talk blocking. I never noticed this before, but while this episode shows off Joss's favorite directing trick (the long take; the Cordy/Xander linoleum scene at the base is the only one where the whole scene is one shot, but there's a lot of moving the camera around so you need fewer cuts, like the scene at the start of Act 2), he also does something subtler. He makes Jenny look small. Robia LaMorte (the actress) is fairly tall and normally is bigger than Sarah and Alyson. (You can see this when she and Buffy enter the lounge together early in "Surprise" or when they talk before Jenny gives her the ride, for example.) But here Jenny is going to have her worst episode of the series (she's been endangered before, but she was okay at those episodes' end) and get pushed out of the group. So Joss "disappears" her throughout the shooting, both to set up the end and to make her conflict with Buffy (secrets) different from the PHYSICAL conflict with Big Tall David/Angel, who as we noted is even taller than before because Evil Angel has better posture. So in this scene, Cal is all the way at the back, and Robia is slouching against the book cage, so she's not taller than Aly. And when Willow steps forward to agree with Xander, Jenny is left in the background. And when she does join the larger group (once Buffy enters) she's behind Willow and Cordelia. And when she leaves, Joss shoots it a higher angle, to diminish her. You wondered why the Buffy/Willow scene in the hall was shot at that unusually-high angle? Well, to make Jenny look sinister (when she pops out as B/W go up the stairs)…but also to make Robia smaller. Since we tracked with Buffy and Willow for a little bit, the angle on Sneaky!Jenny is higher than the one we had on the girls, so she looks smaller than they did. Hey, Dru changed her outfit! Spike's all "are you feeling better?" because she collapsed before, but if she had the strength to change clothes, lol. (Of course, Cordelia would say pain is no excuse to slack on your look…) The "Broadway dream" story that Angel tells Spike is the plot of "42nd Street", a successful musical and movie from the 1930s. There was a big-splash revival in 1981, which made a star out of Jerry Orbach, before "Law and Order". SPIKE: Uh…yeah. Angel, look over YOUR shoulder. While IMO Spike wasn't very successful as the lead villain (what with all the running away), he works so great as the grumpy sub-villain here, taking the wind out of Mr. Big Plan I-Love-to-Hear-Myself-Talk Angel when ever he can. Drusilla is Angel's adoring audience, but Spike is there to gripe and mock and complain. Love it. JUDGE: This one [Angel] is clean. He can not be burned. Remember what I said about Joss being assiduous at clearing up plot points so the audience stayed "in the story"? Here we are again. The Judge's main purpose (other than to catalyze B/A into "seizing", which was "pretty inevitable" anyway, in Buffy's own words) is to be a Demonic Lie-Detector, basically. Anybody who was wondering if Angel was faking, if this was some clever plan to fool Spike and Dru can stop wondering. Angel has a "clean" bill of health. And oh yeah, Angel's face. "Yeah, baby…I'm back" is the hottest moment in the entire series, I contend. There are romantic moments and more-explicit moments…but this is my #1 for HEAT.

Jessica Roth

So we start Act 2 with one of Joss's extended takes, ending with Angel kissing Spike. (I told you there were reasons for all that fanfic…) Originally, Angel was supposed to KILL Spike here, to show his evil and establish his dominance, but Joss decided that Spike was too valuable as a contrary voice in the "evil lair" scenes, and besides killing a villain might confuse the "maybe he's still good" audience. Great end to the scene with "She made me feel like a real human being. That's not something you just forgive." David barely raises his voice in the episode, but Angel is always angry. For DECADES, the demon's been held in check by the spirit of that Irish kid that Darla killed way back, and he's had to watch every soppy "romantic" moment, a helpless prisoner. He's animating the body, he's the one that needs to feed, but that stupid soul kept ruining things. David plays this so well. As much as I despised that weak "I'll just feed and run" that didn't even convince Spike, here you can see that Angel is CONSTANTLY remembering how it felt to be dominated by Broody Boy, how every fiber of his being hated that, how much he wants revenge. The difference between reading the lines and feeling the part, I guess.

Jessica Roth

People (including Willow) react poorly to Xander's "say hi for me", but I don't get it. Seems like basic manners to me. I think Xander's just annoyed because he isn't making any progress, but you might be right it's also about his personal life. I absolutely love the little nose-wrinkle Cordelia does right before they kiss. And nice catch on the romantic music (as opposed to the comedy soundtrack for their first kisses), right before the trouble happens. So not only does Cordelia have to worry about the social consequences of being exposed (I wish they'd kept the Cordy/Harmony scene from last episode to underline this but I guess it's implicit), but she saw Xander run after Willow without an apology, any word at all or any thought directed her way. Willow is upset and Xander follows, no time for CC. Ouch. For all we talk about Oz's Islanders gear, I kind of think Xander's sweater here looks like an Islanders jersey, minus the logo. I know the colors are wrong (blue+orange is Mets and Knicks, Islanders are blue+red), but that's the impression I get. XANDER: It's just kissing. It doesn't mean that much. Ouch. Heck of a thing to say to the girl who's been dreaming that you'll be her first kiss since who-knows-when. (And not terribly respectful of Cordelia, but that's a different subject.) Is this meant to foreshadow Angel's "Lighten up. It was a good time" coming up? Hmm. So Buffy's at her house, but decides not to enter, and goes to Angel's place instead. Or, more precisely, Joss decided. The original script called for Angel to show up at Buffy's and for them to have their convo on her front lawn. But they shot it, and it didn't work. It's too intimate a conversation to have in public. So they moved it to Angel's apartment, but you can still see the original intent…next act Buffy will say "when I saw him at the HOUSE" because the Library scenes were shot before this one.

Whisper_dvm
>>67149215

Oh that’s interesting. I always thought the “house” comment was weird word choice for Angels apartment. Makes sense now!

darcieswatchingbuffy
>>67070748

FAIR... i havent liked angel very much either (obviously lol) hes very much in the minus points still at this point so i dont blame ya! HOWEVER i am very curious about your rant so dont forget about! once it wont be a spoiler, id love to hear it hehe :)

darcieswatchingbuffy
>>67072234

LOL omg when you lay it out like this.... SO MUCH HAPPENED! my biggest hope is for Cal and Rupe to be okay... i feel bad for her and dont blame her for lying. i likely would have too in her position. but i LOVE that one of the team members caused a bit of a ripple. it just makes things so interesting. overall such a good episode, and it's only mid season! (or a bit past mid)

darcieswatchingbuffy
>>67103972

ohhhh i knew before he turned around too and maybe it was because of how he stood up!!! that is so interesting.... i haven't screen shot it - i will have to go back and look at the face i dont even remember it LOL i was just shocked like omg its happening.. he killed someone so like.. this is real! it was a wild feeling!

darcieswatchingbuffy
>>67113020

VERY interesting stuff about making Cal look smaller - especially that super weird high angle (it almost made me feel a little dizzy watching it thats why i pointed it out) so i love this analysis so much!

ghostofdurruti

Great reaction to what is probably the first truly great episode of the series imo! On the subject of Jenny getting a notification that Angel's lost his soul: at my work, we use an app called pagerduty to alert us when something breaks and needs attention outside normal working hours. One of the "ringtones" it can play when that happens is this, to the tune of Frere Jacques: "Something's broken, something's broken, it's your fault! It's your fault! Are you gonna fix it? Are you gonna fix it? Right away! Right away!" So when you brought that up I couldn't help but imagine Cal's nonexistent cell phone suddenly going off and playing that song when Angel lost his soul :D

Jessica Roth

Moving to the "Was I Not Good?" scene itself, we have more great work from David. (And of course SMG, but that's pretty much a given.) I love the vulpine grin he gets during his and Buffy's second hug, his face over her unsuspecting shoulder, anticipating the lovely pain he plans on causing her. And then Angel does a great job of "brushing Buffy off", featuring one of Joss's best lines: "No, really; I thought you were a pro." Making Buffy feel like a child (who doesn't understand what sex is), a fool (for thinking things it should have been "obvious" Angel didn't), a virgin (who's useless in the sack), and a slut (who gave it up far too easily) all at once. You bastard. (Either Angel or Joss.) And remember what I said about "42nd Street"? The "bells ringing, fireworks, a dulcet choir of pretty little birdies?" line is practically musical theatre; if Angel had broken out into a song and dance routine, I wouldn't have been completely surprised, lol. But back in the actual show, we then get what I think is the best bit of physical acting in the series…The Thoughtful Finger. When Angel reaches for Buffy and she pulls away ("Don't touch me") and puts his chin in his fist (as if "blaming himself" for "expecting her to be more mature") and then wags the finger at her, going "I should have known…" As if saying he "seized" her on impulse, but now that he's thought things through, he realizes that Buffy wasn't "grown-up" enough. Devastating, and so wonderfully evil. And now more acting with his back to the camera from David; as he turns away (while Buffy's going "I love you!") you can see that Angel is fighting hard not to bust out laughing. Great stuff. Joss's script had Angel winking at Buffy when he goes "Love you, too", but that's unnecessary. The simple blithe reply (and the obvious lie of the ensuing "I'll call you") are all we need. Top work.

Teresa Schultz

I’m just coming out of my COVID delirium and saw these were posted. So excited for these great reactions and more to come!

Jessica Roth

Off to The Incredible Shrinking Jenny/Jana and her uncle. Uncle says exposition that will be replayed in future "Previously…" clips, Jenny protests. Uncle is standing, Jenny is seated. Uncle is shot from a low angle (making him taller), Jenny is shot from above, making her smaller. Only at the end does Jenny stand…and that's to walk away from the camera, towards the door, and thus getting smaller as she walks away. JENNY/JANA: People are going to die! Well, somebody already has died, but she can be forgiven for not knowing about Alley Woman. (Or should she? Doesn't Willow still hack into the coroner's office and read the reports, as in "Some Assembly Required"? Hmm.) But Jenny is clearly a prophet here; the person she says this to won't make it out of Act 3.

Brandon Scott
>>67149215

Interesting thoughts. Your first seemed a bit odd to me. It’s not the phrase, “Say hi for me” that evokes the bad reaction. It’s the timing. Willow: No, don’t even say that. Angel is not dead.” Xander: Say hi for me. If it still doesn’t make sense consider someone you love, someone who is a family member or a dear friend whose happiness you purport to care about. Now consider that they are fearing for another loved ones life. This person whom you deeply care for cares for this other person who is missing and feared hurt or dead. They express that fear and your response would be what? Would it be to dismiss your loved one’s fears, as well as to dismiss the pain and stress they are under, to change the subject to something trivial. Just my thoughts. That’s why it gets a side-eye from me, anyway.

Michael Mammano-Cheydleur

The strike against Buffy's sexuality, while unfortunate in the grand scheme, was a casualty of the metaphor. The entire theme of Season 2 was basically "Love Hurts," the main Villain arc, being the de-souling of Angel, which would disrupt both Buffy/Angel and Spike/Drusilla. The idea behind sex being the trigger was a supernatural twist on "I slept with my boyfriend, and now he won't call me." The idea that sometimes when you sleep with a guy, he changes afterward and turns out to be a bastard. I can definitely see how it had unfortunate implications, but Giles' speech to Buffy in the car was an attempt to counteract that idea. The primary man in Buffy's life, her patriarchal surrogate, step in and rather than shaming her, her supports and validates her, saying to both her and the audience that she did nothing wrong and Angel's bad behavior is all on Angel.